Homeowners need help navigating crisis

Resource fair attracts 1,600 people seeking counseling

Karen Brito of Silver Spring talks with Kathy Thrower, program manager for Rebuilding Together Montgomery County at the county's 9th annual Housing Fair and Financial Fitness Day in Gaithersburg on Saturday. More than 1,600 people attended the event.

Enrique Castellano has to be blunt as he disabuses clients of their myths and misconceptions of homeowner rescue.

Particularly with the Latino clients he counsels at HomeFree-USA Inc., a lack of financial education leaves struggling homeowners unwilling or unable to see the reality of their circumstances.

"The first thing they inundate you with is, Oh, my friend said this, somebody said that, my friend got 1.5 percent.' It doesn't work like that," he said. "Some of them, it's like they get hit by a shockwave because it's like, Oh, nobody ever told me that, nobody ever showed me that way.'"

Castellano and dozens of counselors, pro bono lawyers, lenders, housing experts and government officials delivered that message to more than 1,600 people Saturday at the county's 9th Annual Housing Fair and Financial Fitness Day in Gaithersburg.

HomeFree, the Latino Economic Development Corp. and Housing Initiative Partnership got nearly 50 struggling homeowners into counseling plans. Fifty-five people in more dire situations met one-on-one with lawyers from the Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland. The Montgomery County Coalition for Financial Literacy pulled 100 credits reports. Another 25 sat through a first-time homebuyers' class taught by the Gaithersburg-based nonprofit Housing & Community Initiatives, Inc.

Among them were Jonathan Nagle and Amy Elieff, who nine years ago were ill-prepared for homeownership, despite having gone through the county-run class for first-time buyers. When their marriage ended in divorce, Nagle's hold on the home unraveled.

After re-marrying last year, they are back on the market and recently put a bid on a house near Wheaton and Glenmont. The homebuyers' class Saturday and a visit to the booth of the U.S. Department of Housing Urban Development armed them with the questions they'll need as they continue their house hunt in a market that is a far cry from what they recall the first time around.

"Oh my god, it's a lot harder. There's more rules, there's more everything," said Elieff, 44. "The HOC class was really informative this time, it was a lot better than nine years ago."

Saturday's turn-out  last year's fair drew a then-high of 1,000 people  highlights the ongoing struggle to right the ship as Montgomery County's housing crisis spreads among homeowners who steered clear of subprime or other exotic loans.

Upcounty communities are being hit especially hard. Based on the number of mortgage defaults between April and June, the state's Department of Housing and Community Development classified two Montgomery County ZIP codes as "severe"  Gaithersburg's 20877 and Montgomery Village's 20886, which saw 130 and 107 foreclosures, respectively. Another seven ZIP codes were rated "very high"  Germantown's 20874 and 20876; Gaithersburg's 20879; Rockville's 20851; Damascus's 20872; Burtonsville's 20866 and Silver Spring's 20903.

Castellano, who was loan officer for 18 years before becoming a foreclosure counselor last year, thinks it will be four or five years before the housing market recovers.

"One of the reasons is because of the structures of the loan, the way that the mortgages are structured, that if you do one thing one way too much, then the economy is going to suffer for it," he said. "The way the investors are set up, the way they bought the investment, it's a very difficult thing because it's a domino effect. You just can't tell a lender, Hey, my house is worth only now $300,000 and I'm paying you a $650,000 loan.' Now, whose fault is that? Is it the investor's? No. So I think it's going to be a while until we see some light, to really see a change."

County and state agencies have funneled millions to dispatch housing counselors, pro bono lawyers and short-term financial assistance. But still more needs to be done, said Carmen Castro, a counselor with the Germantown-based Housing Initiatives Partnership.

"What we have right now in Montgomery County, we're just touching the tip of the whole group of people that are facing foreclosure," she said.